The textbook industry will never be the same. Apple has just made it easy for educators to create and publish their own textbooks with the new app iBooks Author. According to MacWorld, the app is as easy to use and works seamlessly with other apple products like Pages and Keynote.

What does this mean for teachers and school districts? This will enable us to create highly customized materials at significantly less cost than previously possible. The textbook publishers no longer hold the reins on the quality of content delivered to students.

It will also allow for dynamic, interactive ebooks that incorporate video, sounds, links and high quality images. As with all ebooks, students will have the benefits of keyword searches, highlighting, annotating and bookmarking. As well as having all their books and notes stored in one lightweight device!

Also announced today is the new iTunes U app which allows teachers to create an entire course curriculum with video, documents, apps and books. Students can search iTunes U catalog to browse ratings, description and course outline. iTunes U is already being used by colleges and universities. Now, for the first time, it is available for K-12 schools.

The new iBooks 2 app, iBooks Author and iTunes U app are all free. Although, it isÂ too early toÂ tell howÂ theseÂ products will affectÂ classroom instruction,Â providing access to tools thatÂ steerÂ the K-12Â systemÂ away from traditional methods of content and instruction delivery isÂ another step in the right direction.